hi, i have mint 15 MATE (64 bit) and it is currently the only OS on my dell inspiron 15-3521.. i have disabled UEFIi would like to install opensuse as a dual-boot scenario. i have run it in virtualbox and it works and i think that means it will work as an installed OS on my hardware?

i don't know how best to approach the process, to have in the end what i want:-i would like to make sure the 2 systems have separate home folders.-i would like it if there was another partition that both systems had access to (but one that won't cause errors if they both read/write there) for example shared music but not any preferences or settings (or incompatibilities)-i would like to not have grub issues (as i hear they use different versions but i don't know enough to understand those implications beyond "uh oh")-i would like to make this process as clean as possible and hopefully learn something in the process.

(google is pretty windows-centric when you search for dual boot & apparently these forums just plain don't allow those search terms, i promise i tried to help myself, i'm just stuck now)

lemon_drop wrote:-i would like to make sure the 2 systems have separate home folders.-i would like it if there was another partition that both systems had access to (but one that won't cause errors if they both read/write there) for example shared music but not any preferences or settings (or incompatibilities)

No problem with separate home if you have different usernames for both of them.

If you want read/write access for everyone, use windows-filesystems like ntfs or fat32 (they are insecure of course, but it does not be a problem with music, etc.).

lemon_drop wrote:i would like to install opensuse as a dual-boot scenario. i have run it in virtualbox and it works and i think that means it will work as an installed OS on my hardware?

Running well in virtualbox does not imply there will be no issue when you run directly installed on hard disk.You still need to deal with drivers, kernel etc on the specific distros with your hardware.

i don't know how best to approach the process, to have in the end what i want:-i would like to make sure the 2 systems have separate home folders.

This is just a personal preference issue.You could choose to have 2 systems with separate home folders.

For me, I multiboot and cross all bases, and I found myself lean on simplicity, so, my approach isa....one partition for one OS, including any Windows OSb....one swap to share by all Linux OSc....one data partition, in ntfs format, to share with all Win and all Lin OSes.c.... in additions, I use data partition to keep also all configurations , drivers, and backup of Linux OSes.If I need to be even more sure, I would copy the config, drivers, and linux OS backup to external USB drive, so that in case of any internal hard disk crash, I can restore easily to a new hard disk.

-i would like it if there was another partition that both systems had access to (but one that won't cause errors if they both read/write there) for example shared music but not any preferences or settings (or incompatibilities)

For me, I just use ntfs data partition, and it has been always work for ALL Win and ALL Lin OSes sharing.

-i would like to not have grub issues (as i hear they use different versions but i don't know enough to understand those implications beyond "uh oh")

Sometime ago, openSUSE use grub legacy, and ubuntu derivative use Grub2, so imcompatibility existed.Since 2011/11/16, version openSUSE version 12.1 onwards used grub2, so if you are using 12.1 on wards you should be fine since they are both using grub2.

-i would like to make this process as clean as possible and hopefully learn something in the process.

This has something to do on your choice of partition scheme, and other learning curve.Partitioning is crucial, choose the method that suit you.

(google is pretty windows-centric when you search for dual boot & apparently these forums just plain don't allow those search terms, i promise i tried to help myself, i'm just stuck now)